West Virginia Cool

I’ve long believed that if West Virginia is going to attract young people or keep the good ones here, we’d better get “cool.”

My friend Elizabeth Gaucher has a post this week on The Revivalist: Word from the Appalachian South about West Virginia’s urgent need to attract and retain young people who “get it.” The post has me thinking about what our “cool” might be, the cool that gets this challenging job done. I believe it’s in our blending of culture and cause. Steve Stoute, author of The Tanning of America, says when referencing marketers who pursue cool in his firm, Translation, ” The job of a translator, as a rule the new economy, is to find the sweet spot between a brand’s (ours being West Virginia) core values and cultural cues.” Stoute’s whole book, in fact, is about America’s diversity and how the more juxtaposed branding is, the better. Differences no longer scare the generation we call the Millennials, and these Millennials are the people with whom West Virginia wants and needs to connect.

It seems as if West Virginia is desperately missing “the cool factor,” but I think it’s also that most people just don’t know about West Virginia. We are one of America’s best kept secrets, and maybe that will turn out to be part of our cool. I’m darn-skippy proud to be from West Virginia — I was country before country was cool. I make the best of life. I seize every opportunity, and if I can do what I do here, I know I can do it anywhere.

if you thinkmakin‚’shine from cornis as hard as Kentucky coalimagine beingan Affrilachianpoet

It’s not easy, but what worth anything is? I know I’m making history by planting seeds in West Virginia. I am part of a movement, and I don’t have to sleep in a tent. I create, dream, and sell my state in poems and Hollywood conversations. I also fully understand those like Jason Headley when they say, “I’ve never had a problem being from West Virginia. I just had some difficulty being in West Virginia.”

It is not a catered life, being in West Virginia (I also love taxi cabs, four star restaurants, upscale shopping and my groceries delivered). But there is a balance and blending that the southern-most northernest state can really own and create its own unique American brand of making a difference for the world. This potential is really cool.

It’s going to be about a fusion, and I know a little something about that, too. I even wrote a poem about it. Like to hear it? Here it go: